Navigate to Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings.
Render settings (scene settings) for all renderers, for example: the Maya Hardware 2.0 renderer and the Maya Software renderer, are consolidated into one Render Settings window.
Use the settings in this window to set scene-wide render options. Especially when used in conjunction with per-object render settings (see the particular object or render subject matter for details), the render settings give you a great deal of control over quality of rendered images and the speed with which they are rendered.
Render Layer
Select from the drop-down list the layer that you want to render from.
Presets
Use the Presets menu to save your current settings as a preset and avoid having to adjust them each time you render.
Render Using
Select from the drop-down list the renderer that you want to use.
Common tab
The common tab contains settings that are common to all renderers. See Render Settings: Common tab.
mental ray for Maya renderer
For information on the mental ray for Maya tabs, see Render Settings: mental ray tabs.